Amy the muchanticipated film, snowden, about one of the most wanted men in the world, hits theateters this friday. Today we spepend the hour with academy awarardwinning filmmakr oliver stone and t the actor who josephnowden, gordonlevititt. The e films release e comes amt a steppedup campaign for president obama to pardon snowden befofo he leaveses offie in january. If not for these revevelatio, we wouould be worse off. Yes, there are laws in the books that s say one thingng, but pers thisis is why the pardon n power exists for the exceptions, for the manyny things that may seem unlawful in letters on a page, but when we look k at them morally, ethically, whwhen we lk at the results, it is obvious these were necessary things. These were vital things. Amy and we will speak with wikileaks editor sarah harrison. In 2013, she spent four months with snowden and the russian airport. Fororking as a contractor the intelligence agencies, he was able to understand this isnt necessarily they are not necessarily doing the right thing and telling the public the truth. Although his motives of always been to serve his country in a public constitution, the message with which this was appropriate to actually act outt became a very different one and in this case, it became having to expend to the American Public what was actually being done to them. Amy all of that and more coming , up. Welcome to democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Imprisoned Army WhistleblowerChelsea Manning has announced shes ending her Hunger Strike, after the army has agreed to provide her adequate medical treatment, including genderaffirming surgery. Manning is serving a 35year sentence in the Disciplinary Barracks in fort leavenworth, kansas, after being convicted of passing hundreds of thousands of documents to wikileaks. She has been subjected to long stretches of solitary confinement and denied medical treatment related to her gender identity. On tuesday, chelsea said in a statement i am unendingly relieved that the military is finally doing the right thing. I applaud them for that. This is all that i wanted for them to let me be me. I hope this sets a precedent for the thousands of trans people behind me hoping they will be given the treatment they need. In news from the campaign trail, new York Attorney general Eric Schneiderman has launched an investigation into the donald j. Trump foundation. This comes after a series of investigations by the Associated Press and the Washington Post have sparked questions about trumps family charity. The post revealed that donald trump has not given any of his own money to the charity since 2008. Instead, the charity has simply been receiving and donating other peoples money, while creating the illusion trump has been giving himself. In one case, trump used 20,000 of the Foundation Money to buy a 6foottall painting of himself. The Washington Post also revealed trump has used the foundation to make political contributions, including giving money to the campaign of Florida Attorney general pam bondi who had threatened to investigate Trump University using Foundation Money for such political purposes is illegal. Meanwhile, a newsweek investigation is raising questions about the Trump Organization and potential serious conflicts of interests that would arise if trump became president. The investigation reveals the Trump Organization is a vast Financial Network that stretches from new york city to india, ukraine, china, brazil, argentina, turkey, and russia where the organization is connected to russian mining, banking, and real estate billionaire vladimir potanin, who himself is closely tied to the russian government. Trumps frequent praise of russian president Vladimir Putin has already sparked concern among National Security experts about u. S. Foreign policy under a possible trump presidency. The newsweek investigation concludes if donald trump wins this election and his company is not immediately shut down or forever severed from the trump family, the Foreign Policy of the United States of america could well be for sale. This comes as a new trove of hacked emails have been released on the website dcleaks. Com. Delete includes an email from former secretary of state general colin powell sent on june 17 of this year in which he calls donald trump a National Disgrace and international pariah. In north dakota, more than 20 people were arrested tuesday blococking construction of the 3. 8 billion Dakota Access pipeline, which hahas faced mons of resistance from the Standing Rock sioux tribe and members of hundreds of other tribes f from across the United States, canada, and latin america. Tuesdays actions took place near new salem, which is about 70 miles norththwest of the main protest camps. Video shows police in full riot gear carrying assault rifles at at the side of the protest. Site of the protest. Among those arrested were two journalists with the outlet unicorn riot. Construction was halted for hours as two people locked themselves to heavy machinery. Were here locking down to this pipeline, machinery, andnd stopping C Construction at t ths site foror t today and letting e that construction to the dakota pipeline is to continuing, contrary to what t a lot of folks thohought after lat fridays intervention by the obama administratation, youou k, making it seem like they were going to stop the pipeline. The pipeline continues to be built. Amy the arrests come only days after the Obama Administration intervened in the pipeline battle, indefinitely prohibiting construction under the Missouri River and asking Dakota Access to voluntarily cease construction on a 40 mile spanning the river although, construction on the vast majority of the 1172mile pipeline continues. Meanwhile, the Dakota AccessPipeline Company says it has removed 27 pieces of equipment from another construction site on tuesday. The arrests came as s thousandsf people rallied across dozens of u. S. And International Cities tuesday in opposition to the Dakota Access pipeline. On tuesday, hundredsds rallied n oakland, boston, london, philadelphia, and toronto where protesters blocked major downtown streets. In washington, d. C. , thousands protested the project. This is vermont senator bernieie sanders. Mr. Sanders today, the Pipeline Company is refusing to hold its construction halt its construction while a new review takes place. In absence of the Pipeline Companies compliance, further Administration Action is needed. That is why im calling on president obama today to ensure that this pipeline get a full environmental and Cultural Impact analysis. So today we stand united in saying, stop the pipeline. Respect native american rights. And let us move forward to transform our Energy System away from fossil fuels. Amy thehe United States and israel have agrereed upon a new military aid package of 38 billion over 10 years. It is the Largest Military funding package the u. S. Has ever offered to any nation. The u. S. Already gives israel more than 3 billion in military funding every year. This figure will now increase to an average of 3. 8 billion a year. In syria, a tenuous ceasefire brokered between the u. S. And russia appears to be holding, although some violations have been reported on all sites. The ceasefire, however, has opened up a rift between secretetary of state john kerry and d the pentagon, whwhich is pushing back on kerrys plan to share information with russia in the campaign against isis in syria. Meanwhile, u. N. Human rights commissioner Zeid Raad Al Hussein slammed syrian president Bashar Alassad for a wide range of human rights abuses on tuesday. This is a state led by medical doctor and yet is believed to have gassed its own people, has attacked hospitals and bombed civilian neighborhoods with indiscriminate explosive weapons, and maintain tens of thousands of detainees in inhumane conditions. Words cannot convey how profoundly i condemn this situation. The government which is responsible for some of the gravest violatations on record n the history of this council has regularly sent notes to my office reporting abuses by armed groups. But it offers no possibility whatsoever for independent scrutiny. Amy in financial news, new data shows the median household 2015. Rose over 5 in it is the first major increase of Household Income since the recession began in 2007. The data shows average income for the poorest 20 of americans increased for the first time in four years. This comes after a number of cities and states passed minimum wage hikes, however, economic inequality remains deeply entrenched. The poorest 10 0 of americans e relatitively poor todaday than y were in 1989. German pharmaceutical firm bayer is expected to announce a takeover of agribusiness giant monsanto today. Bayer has been trying to take over monsanto for months, but monsanto has repeatedly rejected past offers. A merger between the firms would create the largest supplier of seeds and agricultural chemicals in the world. Meanwhile, a new analysis by the wall street journal shows the pharmaceutical giant m mylan, which has come under fire for hiking the cost of the lifesaving allergy shot epipen by 400 in less than a decade, has the second highest executive pay in the entire u. S. Pharmaceutical industry. In the last five years, mylan has paid its top five executives nearly 300 million. Thats second only to the Pharmaceutical Company regeneron, which over five years , paid itsts top five executives more than 500 million. In bangladesh, the death toll from a fire at a packaging factory has risen to 31. The fire began after a boiler explosion on saturday. The company, tampaco foils, packages items for multinational companies, including nestle and British American tobacco. This is the Inspector General of the bangladeshi police, speaking right after the disaster. Until now we have found bodies of 21 people who died in the e fire. What i have seen is an indususty with bad safetety per decision whether the have proper documents, we will have to look into it. Amy and in new york city, polilice are looking for a man o lit a muslim woman on fire, as she was shopping in manhattan wearing traditional religious clothing. On saturday, the scottish tourist was standing on fifth avenue when she realized her irt was s on fire. A man was standing nexto her withth a lighter in hihis hand. Police say the incident may have been a hate crime. It came only days before eid al adha, one of thehe holiest dayss for muslims. In r response, Linda Sarsour wre as a muslim woman, not only is wearing my religious headscarf in public an act of faith, but it has become an act of courage. The united s states has seen a surge e of attacks against muslm americans over the last year. And those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Juan and im juan gonzalez. Welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. Today we spend the hour with Academy Awardwinning filmmaker oliver stone, director of the muchanticipated film, snowden that hits theaters this friday. The best i could tell, even walking round with two broken legsgs for weeks when do i go back . If you ever again lanand on those legs, your b bones w willn to powder. R. Therere other ways s to servever countrtry. Why do you want to join the cia . I would likike to make a difffference in the world. The averarage test time, f fe hours. 38 minutes . What should i do nowow . Whatever you want. The Deputy Director of the nsa offered me a n new position. Can you tell me anything about it . You know i cant. Find the terrorist on the inteternet haystack. For making people very hap. Thank you. How is this a possible . Think of it as a gogoogle search. Where looking atat everything ty donnt. Emailil, chats, whatever. Which peoplple . T the whole kingdom, snow white. The nsa is really trtracking every cell phone in the world. Most americans dont want freedodom. Theyanant securityty. Except people dont even know they made a bargain. Quite are they watchining u us . Thereres something going on inside thehe government that is really wrong andnd i cant ignoe it. Get t this datata to ththe world. I feel like i am made to do this. And if i dont do it, then i dont know anybody else that can. This is everytything i havave. There when the figure out what i have done. Did y access and unauthorized program . The government knows we have these documents now. Looking at a possible death sentence. I cant turn back from this. Watch yourself. We are running out of t time. Theyre going to come for. Theyre going to come for all of you, too. Juan thats the trailer to the new film, snowden, directed by oliver stone, about nsa whistleblower Edward Snowden, who exposed sweeping surveillance programs by u. S. Intelligenence agencies and bece one of the most wanted men in the world. The film recreates what transpireded in a hong kong hotl room over eight days i in june 2013 whesnowden fifirst met with no tillage prizewinning joururlist laura poitras, glglen greenwald, and guardian reporter Ewen Macaskill t to leak a trove of secret dodocuments s abouhow the United States had built a massive surveillance apparatus to spy on americans and people across the globe. It also tells the story of snowdens little k known pernanl relationship with h longtime relatitionship with h his partnr lindsay mills. Amy throughgh flashbacks, the film chronicles snowdens career in National Security as a staffer and contractor with the cia and nsa, and showsws his eventual realization of the extent of the u. S. Mass surveillance program, as illustrated in this scene with an nsa hacker whom he later befriends. What t i will be e providingu in the fine e gentlemen of s set service is a l list of every threat made abouout the presisit since february 3 and a profile of every threat maker. And these are existiting targets . Percent llll come fromom the buk collectition programam. Prisoson . You got a l little snow whihe menunu. It a almost makes me feell likee witch bringing you poison apple. Exexhibit a, pososted on messageboardrd, roromania has a storieied history of f executing ththeir leaders, could t they ds a solilid and takeke out bush . S looks cheesy. It is from a gchat. With the biggest python n you he ever seen. Hm. How is s this all posossible . Take out bush. Think of it isis a g google sea. Ininead of searching what people make public,c, we are also lookg at what t they dont. You know, cap ,sms fofor what. Butut which people . The whole kingdom, snow white. Amy that is a clip from snowden. The films release comes amid a steppedup campaign for obama to pardon snowden before he leaves office in january. Snowden is charged with theft of state secrets and is accused of violating the espionage act. He faces at least 30 years in prison, but argues his disclosure of mass surveillance by the u. S. And British Intelligence agencies was not only morally right, but left citizens better off. The aclu is coordinatiting the campaign with human rights watch, amnesty international, and other groups. Full page ads ran today in politico and the Washington Post. For more, we are joined right now by the director of snowden, oliver stone. He is a threetime Academy Awardwinning director and screenwriter. Hes made nearly two dozen acclaimed hollywood films, including platoon, wall street, salvador, born on the fourth of july, jfk, nixon, w, south of the border and wall street money never sleeps. He joins us in studio along with the star of his latest film Joseph Gordonlevitt, who stars , in oliver stones new film as the character Edward Snowden. Joseph gordonlevitt known for uncle third rock from the sun and films. Oliver, you have just release this film. Tonight in 800 theaters across the country, you will not only show the film, but project a conversation with Edward Snowden who is in political exile in russia. Cox yes, tonight. Amy talk about why you chose this as a subject of your latest film. It is an important story. When it broke, i did not want anything to do that because i just dont think movies can chase the news. We are always about a year or two behind. Things change, like in a case like this. I went over to moscow. His lawyer invited me. Wary ofth ed and he was the movie and i was wary of the whole s